Gas mileage is more dependent on gears, stalls, cam/heads, and driving habits.

 

These things stand up just fine to added power cases like this are the exeption but do happen, nobodfy wants to see it happen but it can. we are asking a lot more of these engines than the General ever intended them to take.
As far as the LT4 before considering it what do you think you would gain with it?

For a quick and inexpensive repair you could look into a b-body junkyard motor. It is the same block and rotating assembly you already had, throw your heads and a cam at it and you can be back on the road. It will probably have been driven easier than an f-body engine and will likely cost less. If your topend was damaged the b-body heads flow as much as the best aluminums but weight more and the cam produces more torque lower in the rpms and runs out of steam a little sooner than the f-body cam. The compression difference mean about nothing because at most it just offsets aluminums tendancy to waste heat into the cooling system. Before the flaming starts I am only recommending the b-body heads and cam if yours are unsalvagable and you need to do this on the extreme cheap. The heads as mentioned are heavier so you would add weight but worse would be I am sure you couldn't use the lowend you had before and this will make more sooner so you will not be avle to plant it.
With this whole project you are going to want to try to figure out why thid happened, could just be a freak failure or maybe she ran a little lean detonated and damaged the bearings while you were spraying.

 

I was thinking an LT4 because it has a stronger block, better heads, and a stronger cam, everything I would like to do to the engine while its out. As far as what happened that much I have figured out. The rev limiter was removed because I never wanted to hit it while spraying. I was ins econd gear at about 3k stomped it and sprayed, lost traction and am pretty sure I hit some extreme RPM lvls. Only thing I don't get is why it died almost a mile later and not as soon as I sprayed.

 

Bet the overrev did the damage and the oil pressure was low till the failure.

The LT4 block is no stronger, you might be refering to the 4 bolt mains but those are not of tangible benifit and by the time they are a good idea billet mains are a better idea. The heads are OK but ported LT1 heads are better than as cast LT4 and cost less, the stock LT4 cam is nowhere near worthwhile.

 

okay...this is some what embarrassing...but my engines fine. I never actually saw the hole in the oil pan my self last night because i didnt have my contacts in and it was dark...my friends said they saw a hole...but when a friend and i were about to lift the engine out today it dawned on us we should verify...and could not find a hole anywhere. So, to make a long story short it ended up being the ICM....it had melted lol. We put in a new ICM and just let it haing with out hooking it up to the heatsink thinking it was the head that made it hot and if we just zip tied it it wouldnt get hot any more...yeh well that was a bad idea lol. Thing gets so hot on its own, it burned the crap out of my finger then fried that ICM as well hah...so im going to pick up another one tomorrow with some thermal grease and hook it back up right way with the heat sink and see if its ok.

 

Thumbs up for being man enough to come back and admit your mistake, I asure you are not the firsat to think he blew a motor when he did not and I am sure a lot have been fully pulled and disassembled before people realized it was fine.
Glad to hear things are working out cheaper for you.

 

cant figure out why it keeps frying ICMs though.

 

Lucky bas, mines leakin a trail of oil from the pan. Wish mine was just the icm you must be thrilled. Good for u

 

My fall of 01'...

I would just look for a stock LT1 to replace it straight up, then build that motor over time.

Junk yard locally had one for $550, i replaced the seals and other small stuff took 4 days in total, and the car was running just used some vacation time to do it lol.

Add: i didnt real all the way down LOL, lucky you man, lucky you

 

i dunno weather to be pissed at the guys who told me it was a rod, thrilled, or so embarrressed over crying blown engine because of an ICM dieing lol.

 

Some people are idiots when it come to cars.

I had my car dynoed and once it was over I brought the engine to an idle and a little coolant overflowed and everyone around me told me it was oil til I got out and looked myself. What dummies...oil coming from under the bumper? lol.

 

It is a good idea to step back and look what you are doing. LT1's have very weak pistons. One case of detonation and spray and you could be back looking for a new motor. My motor lasted 60k with 6psi of boost. It never really blew but had tons of blow bye. When I pulled it and disassembled it, I had 5 pistons with cracked or broken ring lands. If I were you I would check the clasifieds from time to time and pick up another block. I haver seen bare blocks go for $300 locally. So keep you eye out.

As for raiding your emergency fund to rebuyld a motor that you are spraying, I'd check you priorities. If you are gonna continue to spray the car I would not count on it for a daily driver. Go buy a gas saver and save up for a rebuild.

 

I thought I blew my engine at 5 lb of boost once, but it turned out I blew the S/C intake elbow off the TB because the clamps weren't tight enough.
It wasn't really noticeable at first, but what a relief it was when we found the problem.
Going from the whole engine rebuild thinking then finding it was just a clamp that got loose.

 

I think I have blow the pipes off over ten times now. I should own stock in Ideal clamps.